Climbing in Skirts

I joined OKCupid based on a friend's advice shortly after parting ways with my boyfriend of 2 1/2 years. I figured that it could be fun. I didn't have anything to lose by signing up. I could meet some interesting people (preferably cool-interesting vs interesting-from-a-psychoanalyst-standpoint).

I filled out my profile, uploaded my photo, and went to work. They make you answer a bunch of random questions (by users and OKCupid) in order to find your mate (I am happy that mating socks doesn't take this much effort). Some of the questions are useful (along with filling out the profile). It helped me figure out what I wanted out of a potential fling/mate. There are also a bunch of quizzes as well to help people and the service get to know you better.

Unfortunately, they make you answer too many questions. I am not a patient person. I wanted to get to the good part. The profile entry and the picture uploading was cake (I guess they make that part easy enough for chimps as part of luring you in). Once I got that far I figured that I would browse some pictures of people that matched my requirements. Then I noticed this little message at the bottom of the screen that says, "After you look through 20 pictures we will show you pictures of some really hot people." I was game for that (I had time to kill). Sadly, I waded through 20 or so pics (some were a little disturbing) then they showed some hot guys that were no where near where I live.

They also force you to start answering more questions by cutting down on the number of matches they show you. In the beginning they would show about 10 or 15 matches. Day 3 I log in and they show me 4. I took a few tests and answered a few more questions to see if that was the problem. I was right in guessing so. I was rewarded by having my match count display returned to 15.

There are some other good features included in the service. People can contact you via IM or email (built into OKCupid so you don't have to clog up your personal accounts with stalker mail).


My favorite message so far was the day after subscribing to the service.

Ciao bella,
i'm an italian guy from Rome..i writing to u first because u are bellissima ( beautifull girl) and even because i would like to know people from all over the world.
angelo
P.s. Probably u don't like this msg i'm 34 years old man but please let me say u are simply a fantastic and sensual woman !!!!

This message popped up when I was gathering my account info to write this article. I am not quite sure what to think about it...

Wow! You're beautiful, charming, a vegetarian, a frethinker, and a mousse artist! Usually women as attractive and tasteful as you are only on here to say that they're not interested in meeting men.

But there weren't any messages from people wanting to meet me. Am I too intimidating? Are my standards too high? Not only that, the people that did contact me were older and lived out of town.

Another problem I ran into is that they kept showing me pictures of the guy that I liked a lot, I know him pretty well, but he is my ex-boyfriend's roommate and the guy that told me to sign up on OKCupid. It would have been ok if there were some other guy that I had a closer match score to but there wasn't. I even went as far as answering more questions so the computer could establish a better knowledge of me. Still no better match. To make matters worse, my match percentage points with the boy went up by 10%. Why can't this be one of the cases where the computer went wrong.

And now for the stats...Match 76%, Friend 73% , compared to me he is more introverted and Matching: 88% effective. The next boy down in the list had a 68% match, 72% friend, and 86% effective match.

I decided to test out my initial crush and the computer's match. I could have been a dork and sent him an IM or some message via the service but I decided to approach him live and in person. There are just some things that can't be done via the computer. Besides I would have felt silly asking out a friend on the computer.

Its been a month and things seem to be ok. If things don't go so well, that other guy appears to be available.

What OkCupid said about me:
I am more independent and less old-fashioned than other female my age.
On the OKCupid test my profile was "The Intern." This meant that they pegged me as capable, trustworthy, and carnal. One of the nice girls, who's a bit quiet, and likes sex. Overall a genuinely thoughtful person. And CHOOSY. Not willing to get mixed up with just anyone.

That would be me in a nutshell.

If you feel like killing a little time or looking for some fun you might try it out for yourself.
www.okcupid.com